Inside Out 2 (2024)

Dir: Kelsey Mann

Cast: Amy Poehler, Maya Hawke, Kensington Tallman, Liza Lapira, Tony Hale, Lewis Black, Phyllis Smith, Ayo Edebiri, Lilimar, Grace Lu, Sumayyah Nuriddin-Green, Adele Exarchopoulos, Diane Lane, Kyle McLauchlan, Paul Walter Hauser

Equally matching the visual ingenuity of the first film, this smart and funny Pixar sequel is the studio’s best project in years despite not quite landing the same emotional punch as its predecessor.

As a cinephile and avid cinemagoer, it has pained me to see over the past few years that box office numbers have been on the decline as a result of a consensual hesitance following the COVID-19 pandemic. Another contributing factor as a result of the global shutdown of 2020 is the exponential rise in streaming platforms and their content that is readily available to audiences within the comfort of their own home. Prior to the pandemic, Netflix and Prime Video were seen as the only competitive streaming services, but lockdown saw the rise of several other including; Hulu, Paramount+, Apple TV, Max, Peacock and of course Disney+. While it may have seemed convenient at the time as cinemas were closed and most major Hollywood productions were on pause, it is the increase in on demand content that is ultimately leading to the industry’s demise.

Despite benefitting during the pandemic by launching their own platform in 2019, Disney has struggled to recapture the critical and commercial magic that has become synonymous with the industry juggernaut over the decades, resulting in a number of lacklustre releases on both the big and small screen. Usually so reliable at the box office, no Disney or Pixar animated feature has made a considerable profit since 2019’s “Frozen 2”. With day to day streaming, viewers have opted to watch the likes of “Soul”, “Luca”, “Turning Red” and “Encanto” at home rather than at their local cineplex. Having looked to move away from day to day streaming in recent times with the theatrical releases of “Lightyear”, “Elemental” and “Wish”, the studio has struggled to repeat the financial success prior to the pandemic.

There has also been a significant drop in quality of late when it comes to Disney and Pixar’s animated features, with their most recent releases only receiving lukewarm reactions from critics, further solidified by coming away empty handed at back to back Academy Awards ceremonies for the first time in almost twenty years. Luckily for both Disney and audiences, their latest release, the eagerly anticipated follow up to the universally beloved 2015 animation “Inside Out”, has come at the right time. With the cinematic landscape going through one of its most baron spells in modern times, “Inside Out 2” has managed to encourage audiences to return to movie theatres having grossed $294.2 million in its opening weekend, the biggest opening in Pixar’s history. The film has currently taken an impressive $800 million for the studio after only 2 weeks in cinemas and is currently the highest grossing film of the year and is looking on course to reclaiming the animation Oscar for Disney.

I was a huge fan of the first film when it was released almost a decade ago, so hidden amongst my excitement was a slight sense of doubt as to whether the sequel could match the ingenuity of its predecessor. After being immediately thrown back into the visually beautiful and expansive mind of our teenage protagonist Riley (Kensington Tallman), I was immediately reassured. We are reintroduced to Riley’s five colourful emotions from the first film; Joy (Amy Poehler), Disgust (Liza Lapira), Fear (Tony Hale), Anger (Lewis Black) and Sadness (Phyllis Smith) as they oversee a newly formed element of Riley’s mind, her “sense of self”, which houses Riley’s most personal beliefs. Riley and her best friends Bree and Grace are invited to an ice hockey camp where Riley hopes to qualify for high school team, the Firehawks.

On the night before the camp, the personified emotions are awoken by Riley’s “Puberty Alarm”, as mind workers begin reassembling Headquarters to house Riley’s new teenage emotions; Envy (Ayo Edebiri), Ennui (Adele Exarchopoulos), Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser) and Anxiety (Maya Hawke). The emotions discover that teenage Riley overreacts to any inputs they make on the console, resulting in the more controlling Anxiety dumping Riley’s “sense of self” at the back of her mind and condemning the old emotions to the memory vault. Believing that Riley should be having fun and focusing on being a good person, Joy and the others set out on retrieving her old “sense of self” and returning it to Headquarters where Anxiety gradually begins to take over Riley.

Newcomer Kelsey Mann takes over directing duties from the legendary Pete Docter and opts not to break the winning formula from the first film, and rightly so. The setup of embodied emotions occupying our minds is an ingenious one and having seen Riley develop from a child to a teenager provides the narrative with fresh new ideas and humour surrounding puberty and teenage angst. The structure itself is relatively straight forward as we see Joy and Anxiety vie for dominance to carry out what they believe is best for Riley, and the end result is a thought provoking message for children and teenagers about their own emotions and how they cannot be shaped into something they are not. The visual gags that come with seeing Anxiety and Joy come to blows despite being at the far recesses of Riley’s mind are delightful. We are treated to hilariously realised concepts such as a “brainstorm” and a “sarcasm” as Joy and the gang make their way across the vibrantly coloured and cleverly conceived world that is Pixar’s answer to Michel Gondry‘s “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”.

We all know and love the five emotions we met nine years ago and they are equally as hilarious here, despite a couple of them being recast. As for the newbie emotions, Maya Hawke takes centre stage, with her skittish energy fully embodying the increasingly unhinged Anxiety. Envy, Embarrassment and Ennui (jokingly referred to as “wee wee” by Joy) however, are largely under utilised and offer very little narratively other than a few gags here and there. Along with Anxiety, the biggest player of “Inside Out 2” is Riley herself. Our emotions’ returning human, is far more rounded in her second feature and is given a broader character arc, which makes sense given her additional emotions. The possibilities are endless as to where Pixar can go with these characters, Riley in particular, as we could be treated to seeing her grow to be a young adult and follow her emotions as they try and cope with the added stresses and responsibilities of adult life. We could see romance and grief play out as Riley ages, in what could be a colourful but emotional family friendly response to Richard Linklater‘s “Boyhood”.

If we are to ever make a return to Riley’s ever maturing mind, it will be interesting to see which of her emotions stick around as no doubt audiences will have their favourites, hopefully we would finally get more of Nostalgia, who briefly pops up from time to time. The one big miss from this outing however was the lack of emotional resonance, devastatingly brought to life in the first film in the form of Bing Bong.

“Inside Out 2” is a much needed return to form for Pixar and is arguably their best project since the films first film almost a decade ago. While it may not quite tug at the heartstrings quite like the first instalment, it recaptures the humour and intelligence that made it so impactful and I would be more than happy to return to Riley’s mind in the future.

Inside Out 2 is now showing in UK Cinemas.

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